UW-Green Bay Associate Prof. Mathew E. Dornbush will be the keynote speaker for the next installment of UW-Green Bay’s Dinner Lecture Series.

Dornbush, Natural and Applied Sciences, will present “The Green Republic: Tropical Conservation and Ecology in Costa Rica” Thursday, March 13 in the Phoenix Room of the University Union on campus, 2420 Nicolet Drive. A gathering with cash bar will begin at 6 p.m., with the dinner and presentation to follow from 6:30-8 p.m.

For the last decade, UW-Green Bay students and faculty have participated in a collaborative program with Carara National Park, one of Costa Rica’s most biodiverse and uniquely protected areas. In Dornbush’s presentation, he will highlight the principal ecological factors promoting Costa Rica’s, and Carara’s, unusually high biodiversity, and some of the interesting natural history tropical travelers can discover. He also will cover the various challenges that Carara and related tropical preserves face, as well as how UW-Green Bay students help Carara meet its conservation objectives while gaining invaluable hands-on experience in conservation biology.

The menu for the dinner-lecture event will focus on the typical meal, or casado, the name referring to the eternal “marriage” of its components. It will include arroz con pollo (rice and chicken); gallo pinto (black beans and rice); hearts of palm salad; platanos maduros (fried plantains); and tres leches (a light and fluffy cake).

Tickets for the March 13 Dinner Lecture Series event, presented by UW-Green Bay Outreach, are $29 per person. Registration and additional information about the series is available online at www.uwgb.edu/outreach/dinner/.